A cabin in the woods near Cloudcroft furnished only from the 1940s
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Houston, Texas, describes going into an apparently empty cabin in the woods near Cloudcroft, New Mexico, in 1957, when they were twelve. They say everything in it was from the 1940s. They report no figure or sound, only the dated furnishings and the sense that nothing in the cabin came from the 1950s. They say they and a friend left in fear. They now think it may have been a slip into another time. They connect it to their father, who died in 1945 before they were born.
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The story as told
[name withheld], calling from Houston, Texas, tells Art Bell that in 1957, when they were about twelve, they vacationed with their family in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, in mountains overlooking the White Sands Missile Range. The caller recalls watching Sidewinder missiles fired there. The caller says they and a friend were walking in piney woods when they saw a cabin with a window slightly open at the bottom and no cars around. They opened the window and crawled down into the basement, where the caller says they heard nobody. The caller reports being drawn to a piano. They lifted the bench and found sheet music, including Andrews Sisters songs from World War II and a Glenn Miller orchestra, and thought it odd that all the music was from the 1940s. In the closet the caller reports a leather sports jacket from the 1940s and a prom dress. Upstairs, in the living room, the caller says the coffee table held newspapers about World War II. They noticed nothing from the 1950s: no rock or Elvis music and no other papers. The caller says the place was not dusty and everything looked shiny and new. In the kitchen the caller reports a small light on the stove, a coffee cup, and a medicine bottle they read as dated 1943. The caller says the hair stood up on their neck, they told their friend they had to get out, and they crawled back out. They were afraid to tell anyone because they had gone into a house, though the caller says they took nothing. The caller says that looking back, it was like stepping into a different time. The caller adds that their father was an army airman who helped work on the timing device for the atomic bomb and was killed in August 1945, before they were born. They were born in December 1945. The caller now thinks the experience may have been a way for him to show them how things might have been. Asked by Bell whether they might have stayed, the caller says they had to get out because they sensed they might have remained in that time.
Reported events, in order
- 0:04
The caller identifies as [name withheld] from Houston, Texas.
- 0:08
The caller says the story dates to 1957, when they were growing up in a small town near Roswell, New Mexico, and the family vacationed in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
- 0:31
The caller recalls watching Sidewinder missiles fired at the White Sands Missile Range from the mountains above.
- 0:40
At about twelve, the caller and a friend walked in piney woods and saw a cabin.
- 0:47
The cabin’s window was slightly open at the bottom and no cars were around. They opened it and crawled down into the basement.
- 0:59
Hearing no one, they were drawn to a piano, lifted the bench, and found music, including Andrews Sisters and a Glenn Miller orchestra, all from the 1940s.
- 1:18
In the closet the caller reports a 1940s leather sports jacket and a prom dress.
- 1:25
Upstairs in the living room, the caller says the coffee table held newspapers about World War II.
- 1:36
The caller notes nothing in the cabin was from the 1950s: no rock or Elvis music and no other papers.
- 1:58
The caller says the place was not dusty and everything looked shiny and new.
- 2:00
In the kitchen the caller reports a small light on the stove, a coffee cup, and a medicine bottle they read as dated 1943.
- 2:21
The caller says the hair stood up on their neck, they told their friend they had to get out, and they crawled back out.
- 2:29
They were afraid to tell anybody because they had gone into a house, though the caller says they took nothing.
- 2:36
Looking back, the caller says it was like stepping into a different time.
- 3:11
The caller says their father was an army airman who helped work on the timing device for the atomic bomb and was killed in August 1945, before they were born. They were born in December 1945.
- 3:32
The caller says they think the experience may have been a way for their father to show them how things might have been had they been there.
- 4:07
Asked whether they might have stayed, the caller says they had to get out because they sensed they might really have remained in that time.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 1:25
The upstairs living room of the cabin contained newspapers about World War II.
- observation· 2:16
A medicine bottle in the kitchen carried a date the caller read as 1943.
- observation· 1:40
The caller reports that nothing in the cabin dated from the 1950s.
- observation· 1:58
The caller reports the cabin and its contents did not look dusty but “shiny and new.”
- observation· 2:00
A small light was on at the stove in the kitchen.
- observation· 2:21
The caller describes a physical reaction and a decision to leave the cabin.
- interpretation· 2:36
The caller concludes the cabin was a way into another time.
- interpretation· 4:07
The caller says they feared they might have remained in that time if they had stayed.
- interpretation· 3:32
The caller suggests the experience may have been connected to their father, who died in 1945 before they were born.
- hearsay· 3:11
The caller reports family information about their father’s wartime work and his death in August 1945.
- host statement· 1:44
The host frames the story as an accidental slip into another time.
- host statement· 3:45
The host notes that the caller’s link to their father may be an overreach.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a consistent, detailed firsthand story with a clear sequence and direct answers to the host’s questions. The caller separates what they saw from their later conclusion. However, an ordinary reading (an empty cabin left furnished with the owners’ 1940s belongings) fits most of the reported contents, and nothing is backed up by anyone else.
Evidence for and against
- Concrete, ordered detail (piano bench, closet, living room, kitchen).
- A named place, a year, and a dated object.
- The caller clearly separates what they saw from their later conclusion.
- An old cabin containing 1940s items has an easy ordinary explanation.
- Nobody backs it up, and the friend who was there is absent.
- A decades-old childhood memory.
- The caller remembers a brief event from age twelve, roughly forty-eight years before the broadcast.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable in this transcript, though the caller’s speech is clearly identifiable by content.
- 0:08
- 1:58
- 3:48
What the model inferred (not said on air): Judgment by part (about 20 for closeness to the source, 16 for detail, 17 for consistency, 8 for ordinary explanations, and 12 for calibration, totaling 73), reduced slightly to stay conservative on a childhood memory no one else backs up.
Only the caller’s word is present. The caller gives details that could be checked (a named town, a year, a dated bottle) and claims a second witness, but neither was verified and the friend does not speak on air.
Evidence for and against
- A named place (Cloudcroft, New Mexico) and year (1957).
- A claimed second witness present at the time.
- No physical evidence is claimed to exist or was examined.
- The second witness does not appear on air.
- No outside check was done.
- No second witness speaks on air.
- Nothing in the story was checked during the broadcast.
- 0:04
- 2:16
- 0:39
What the model inferred (not said on air): A score of 11 to 25 fits because details that could be checked exist on paper but were never checked.
The story is unsettling rather than frightening: an empty cabin whose contents belong to another decade, the caller’s stated physical reaction, and a closing fear of being unable to leave. There is no reported threat, contact, or harm.
Evidence for and against
- Fear of becoming stranded in the past.
- Entering an apparently empty dwelling and finding signs of recent habitation.
- A stated physical reaction.
- No ill will, attack, or injury is reported.
- It ends with the two children leaving unharmed.
- The caller does not describe any threat, so the effect rests on atmosphere rather than danger.
- 2:21
- 4:07
What the model inferred (not said on air): Eerie but not threatening material falls in the middle of the scale.
A familiar [quote withheld] story, but with a distinctive combination: a fully furnished, dust-free interior that stops dead in the 1940s, a readable dated medicine bottle, and a later link to a father the caller never met.
Evidence for and against
- A concrete dated object (medicine bottle, 1943).
- The absence of 1950s objects is noted explicitly.
- A personal, family reading attached to the strange event.
- A time slip into a preserved room is a familiar trope.
- No visual oddity is described (no figures, no mist, no distortion).
- This is pilot-archive scoring, and the weight given to novelty compared with the archive is small.
- The time-slip reading depends on the caller’s conclusion in hindsight.
- 1:25
- 3:32
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment of how distinctive the story is compared with common ghost-story motifs.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story (a single caller, live on air); A claimed second witness (a friend), not present on air and not named; No physical evidence is claimed to exist or was examined. The originality score blends the model's score (62) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- An empty or seasonally used cabin may simply have been left furnished with the owner’s 1940s belongings, which two children took to be strange. · This rests on the reported contents: 1940s sheet music, a 1940s jacket and prom dress, World War II newspapers, and a bottle dated 1943, in a building the children found empty and entered through a window.
- The [quote withheld] and the “shiny and new” look could mean a dwelling still in occasional use or recently cleaned rather than abandoned. · This rests on the caller’s own details that there was a small light on the stove and that the place was “not like dusty.”
- A childhood episode remembered and retold decades later, with the link to their father added over time rather than felt at the time. · This rests on the caller’s statement that it [quote withheld]
What stands out
This is a childhood story in which the strange part is not a figure or a sound but a fully furnished, dust-free interior whose contents stop at the 1940s. The caller later reads it as a possible message from a father who died before they were born. The dated medicine bottle (1943) and the clear absence of 1950s objects give the story an unusually specific checklist.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.